I bought some old dining room chairs a few weeks ago. They were truly hideous, but they had “good bones”. It was hard to see past the stained seats, the scraped up legs, and a busted chair back to what they could be.

I set to work. I took off the seat cushions and took them apart, layer by ugly layer, hoping I could use the batting, but it was so old and dusty—totally unusable. The seat bottoms were cracked and coming apart. I glued and reinforced the seat bottoms; I bought new memory foam batting and cloth to cover them. I sanded out all the scars in the wood. I glued and puttied the broken seat back. And then I painted them all a new color.

Why am I telling you about my refinished dining room chairs? Because we’re all dining room chairs. We’re just one step away from the trash pile. But then Jesus works on us—and He’s a master carpenter. He sands away our imperfections; he fixes our broken spots. He takes our dusty, cracked, hard chair bottoms, and tricks us out in memory foam softness and leather. We are made new—almost unrecognizable. And what was once only fit for the dumpster, is now fit for a king.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”